May 27/01 12:41 pm - Bessette Wins Tour de l'Aude

Lyne Bessette has won her second Tour de l'Aude in convincing fashion - a last stage breakaway with two other riders that netted her second for the stage and nearly 6 extra minutes on the peloton.

"Today was a really hard stage, with 6 GPM's (mountain points sprints) and 4 of them Cat. 1 climbs. Sue (Palmer Komar) and Sandy (Espeseth) did an awesome job at the front in the earlier part of the stage, controlling things and then when Susanne Ljungskog attacked on one of the GPMs I was able to bridge over to her. Judith (Arndt - second overall) managed to bridge across also and the three of us rode very well to the finish." (Arndt took the stage)

Bessette admitted that her win was unexpected, after her ealy season broken collarbone set back her program. "I didn't really expect anything here; just to get my form better. My win was very unexpected, because after the time trial I was 51 seconds behind Edita (Pucinskaite), and she looked very strong in the early climbing. I knew that I only had a couple of chances (to take the lead), but we made a good plan (for stage 7b, when Bessette took the lead) and stuck with it, and it all worked out."

Bessette heads home tomorrow rest for a couple of days and then prepare for next Saturday's World Cup in Montreal. This race should be an extremely exciting battle between Bessette and Quebec's other phenomenal rider Genevieve Jeanson - both have identified Montreal as being one of the most important events of the year for them.